Child abuse by a childcare worker who threatened the child with a knife and hung him in midair by his legs… “Incredible Reversal by the Assaulting Childcare Worker

The police officer said, “We had a lot of work to do due to the new coronavirus, and we did it suddenly.”

This excuse cannot possibly be accepted. The spectacular abuse of a child at Sakura Nursery School in Susono City, Shizuoka Prefecture, was discovered. The following is a statement to the police from Rie Hattori, 39, one of three former nursery school teachers who are alleged to be the perpetrators.

She repeatedly said, “You are dying,” to a preschooler she put to bed, hung him by his legs in the air and left him in a darkened excrement room, and threatened him with a cutter knife. …… According to the city, there were 15 cases of abuse by the three suspects, Sachi Miura (30), Kaori Komatsu (38), and Hattori.

What is malicious is that the preschool allegedly attempted to cover up the abuse, assaulting mainly one-year-old children between June and August of this year. The school became aware of the situation in August at the latest. However, instead of apologizing to the parents, the director, Toshihiko Sakurai, got down on his knees to the childcare worker who had learned of the assault and stopped her from talking about it. He even made all the staff members write a written pledge not to leak the information to the outside.

He had no intention of committing violence.

After receiving a report, the city took serious action, and the situation was finally revealed on November 29. The director Sakurai held a meeting to explain the situation to the parents, but the former childcare workers involved were not present. They had already resigned.

The Shizuoka Prefectural Police arrested the three suspects on December 4 on suspicion of assault, citing fears that they might flee or destroy evidence. The three suspects apologized to the children and their parents, but said they had no intention of committing violence.

Each of the three suspects is facing specific charges of assault.

The Hattori suspect struck a preschooler on the head with a binder and made fun of her appearance. Komatsu grabbed a preschooler by the legs and hung him in mid-air, while another toddler was forced to touch the buttocks of a child with an infection.

The most vicious suspect is Miura. Although he was the only full-time staff member in charge of the one-year-old class, he pinched the cheeks of the children and took pictures of them crying with his smartphone. He was also said to have locked the children in a storage room.

The preschool did not disclose the abuse, and in September, the three suspects were given recommended retirement and other punishments. The one who took offense was Miura. According to the December 15 issue of “Shukan Bunshun” (weekly magazine), he was furious with the director, Sakurai, who had imposed the punishment, saying, “If you make me quit, I will stay here.

If you’re going to make me quit, give me all the money you have left, the car loan, the house loan, and the money for my nursery teacher certification!　Compensate me!

Not only was he unrepentant, he did not even offer an apology. In addition to the abuse itself, the incident is also surprising in the way the preschool and the suspects handled the situation afterward. The city has received an endless number of requests from parents of children attending Sakura Nursery School to transfer their children to the new school.